Time is a Phantom
by Gnomegurl
Summary: A group of friends are somehow sent to Paris 1881, where they meet up with two of the girls' idol: the Phantom of the Opera...silly humor, PG for slight language and constant violence, but only playfully. If we get some reviews, then we'll finish some mor
1. Caelie1

Disclaimer- I probably need to fix the title, but I still need to talk to my friend and co-writer about it. My friend and I had an idea in 8th grade for writing a story on one of the many obsessions we share: Phantom of the Opera. In which we dragged many of our friends as characters for our story. However, not all of these characters are from our own twisted imaginations. They belong to a man named Gaston Leroux, who has long since passed on, but his memory lives on in his story….We also do not own Mandy Moore, or her music.

Ok. The story is a narrative, with Caelie and Becca switching off every chapter or so. So far there are only 3 chapters, but if we get enough reviews and encouragement, we'll finish some more chapters and post them up.

It begins with Caelie, on a normal day…..

"Shit, shit, shit!" The day started out as normal as I scrambled around the room looking for a lost pair of pants. Z100 blared through the radio in the corner.

_"Watch out if you decide to have an Eggo waffle. Before I started using it for food, it used to be able to flip a finger into the air, and I would catch it in my mouth." _Nelson, one of the DJs, explained.

Finally I checked under my pillow, and low and behold, a pair of white cargo pants! Why hadn't I checked there before? 

_"No, I would never sew you into the bed sheets and beat you with a tire iron!" _Having enough of the Crazy Egyptian Woman, I switched CDs. Mandy Moore blared out, the bass shaking my room. Now where was that house key? Now I was really in a panic. Mallory and Ena would be arriving at my door if I didn't hurry.

_"Some boys are full of noise,_

_But boy, you caught my ear._

_I want to see if you've got something to say._

_ _

_No lies or alibis_

_The nonsense stops here._

_Be my friend or you can be on your way."_

_ _

And I was on my way, turning off my CD player, barreling out the door and locking it behind me, I ran down the street.

*****

"Shut up, Ralon!" I reached out to smack him, narrowly missing his shoulder. He smiled, laughed, and ran, hell bent for leather down the hall. I dropped my binder on the nearest desk and shoved my way through the crowded hall, only stopping to tie my unruly hair in a rubber band. I walked into Mrs. Leyden's room- no one there; Mrs. Ervin's room, empty.

Yep, normal day at school.

"Caelie!" The morning ritual was back on track as Becca walked in, hair braided and held back. She opened her locker. Freddy Prinz Jr. glared at me from inside. I congenially punched him in the face.

"Becca Boo!" She turned. "Are we practicing after school?" She nodded yes and shoved the rest of her stuff in her locker. I sighed. Ms. Titus had us practicing nonstop. Everyone in the cast had grades dropping and we were almost to the point of exhaustion. Not including that we were starved to the point of insanity. I briefly thought about skipping but decided against it…I was the lead!

Yes, I know what you're saying…Ha! Maybe it was because I was one of the only people to try out for the part, but, hey, what do you expect? Not many people know "The Phantom of the Opera". But I thought, hey, what the heck. Take the opportunity while you can, I say.

Becca had taken the role of Meg, a very sought for position in the play. You know, Meg: quick and cute, sweet and innocent…not exactly Becca or anyone I know, but, hey, we all had parts!

If you weren't an actor, you were a technician. Ralon, Tyler, 'Nessa, and Maddy had chosen that job. Kevin played André, Mallory was a dancer, and Jamie was Madam Giry. Apart from all the grumbling about play practice, we had a blast! You wouldn't believe the kinds of pranks going on on that stage! Needless to say, we were driving Ms. Titus crazy!

*****

Ok, so it was the end of the school day, and we were all gathered around in a little circle reading our scripts. The multi-colored light flickered on, illuminating the newly painted set.

"That's amazing!" Becca and I laughed like we did every time Ralon goofed off, and ran up to where he was working the lights. We snuck up behind him.

"So whatcha doin'?" 

"Working with the lights…" He started flipping switches like a maniac, creating an eerie glow on the stage. "Lair scene," He flicked some more. "Roof scene," again, "Ballet scene."

"Whats this one do?" I reached over to a dark red switch and flipped it.

"Don't do that!" Ralon warned, but too late- it was done. Sparks started flying everywhere and smoke filled the small space…blue smoke. "Lake scene," Ralon coughed. I started feeling a little dizzy and sat down on the soft ground while Becca battled with the offending special effect, 'accidentally' hitting Ralon in the head with a waving fist.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, want me to kiss it all better?" Becca joked.

"No!!!" 

I looked down at my hand. Soft ground…wasn't the drama department made of wood? "You guys…I think we may have a bit of a problem here!"

Yes, I admit I was getting a bit frantic, but hey…we were standing in the middle of a park! People were standing around with parasols, little poodles played with little children. It was like walking into a painting! And here we were, all nine of us standing here……

Luckily no one had noticed us yet.

"Ok, we can handle this," Ralon began. We all just stared at him dumbfoundedly. "Yes there are people walking around in tuxes and dress coats, yes that is a carriage on a cobblestone street…but this means nothing. This is a dream, all a dream…okay, somebody pinch me, I'm ready to wake up!" Becca stood up and whacked him on the head.

"Ow!"

*****

After walking around for about an hour, we realized that no one spoke English. Fun. We did find out, however, that everyone did speak French.

"Ok, so we're either in Canada or France," Mallory reasoned as we walked down the avenue.

"Or else this is someone's really sick joke," Maddy commented.

"Well I think we've all died and gone to hell," Kevin added. 

"I doubt that the weather in hell is this nice, and besides, I doubt that everyone would speak French…" Everyone suddenly stopped walking.

"Oh my god," Becca looked up. "What building is that?" 

I looked up and almost died. "Becca, is that?"

"Yes it is…"

"Paris Opera!!" we said in unison.

"Wow, surround sound!!"

*****

I kept thinking, wondering, how was it that we were here? Was it some wonderful dream, were we here for a purpose? The stone gargoyles of the Paris Opera House looked down on us menacingly. How long had Garnier's precious palace been standing at this point of time? Was Erik alive? Had Christine and Raoul confessed their love for each other? There was only one way to find out…

'Curiosity killed the cat' a small voice reminded me in the back of my mind. 

Who cares about a stinkin' cat when the Phantom could be lurking about?

_ _


	2. Becca2

I couldn't believe it: the Paris Opera House! But how did we get here? What do we do now?

Tyler was more panicked than any of us. He turned to me and shook my shoulders violently. "Becca! You know where we are, so how do we get back?! I can't stay here! I won't!" Tyler sat down in shock, or was it exhaustion?

'Nessa looked up slowly at the façade of the building. "You know, that's some great artwork. I love the gargoyles," she said, obviously changing the subject.

"Yeah," Maddy agreed. "Groovy."

"Hey Becca," Ralon laughed. "That gargoyle looks like you!" Before he could get distance between us, or add more, Caelie had landed a tight fist on top of his head with an amazing amount of force behind it. He had offended her as much as he had me. Ralon fell, in a daze. I high-fived Caelie.

"Lets go inside," she said. Kevin and Tyler helped Ralon walk by placing his arms around their shoulders. 

We entered the building.

*****

The inside was truly breathtaking. There in front of us stood the grand Escalier in all its splendor. An enormous chandelier twinkled from high above.

"Whoa…" Jamie breathed in awe. The rest of us could only nodd with our heads tipped up, mouths open.

Ralon groaned softly, reminding me of before. I had a strong urge to punch him soundly, but resisted the urge. He made me so mad at times, and yet, part of me could not help but lo- "Caelie?" I asked. "If Garnier built this Opera house over 200 years ago, than why does it look-"

"So brand-spankin' new?" Caelie finished for me. "I was just wondering the exact same thing. And the chandelier doesn't look like it should after-"

"Erik broke it?" I smiled. "Good point."

"Lets go ask someone," Maddy suggested.

We approached a tall, distinguished looking man. When we tried to talk to him, he cut us off, yelling in French. I wasn't sure what we had done that would make him so angry, but even if his eyes had turned red, he wouldn't have looked more mad. He finished with an exclamation on the last word. With an arrogant flip of his head, he sauntered out of the lobby.

"Well," Maddy stated sarcastically. "What a nice guy."

"Now I know we're in hell," Kevin grumbled.

"Well, news flash, Toto. We certainly aren't in Kansas anymore!" Jamie snapped at Kevin.

*****

After asking several other citizens, with basically the same result, we trudged outside.

"We're doing this all wrong," Mallory frowned. "We need to fins out a different way to talk to people."

The group stood in thought. Not even 2 seconds later, the silence was broken by a startled yell. It no doubt came from Tyler, who was flailing his arms, tumbling down the front stairs. 

"Oomph!" He landed squarely on his ass in the middle of the street. He jumped up and turned back towards us.Then he just stood there, glaring at me.

"Whoops," I said in sarcastic innocence. Caelie giggled. When Tyler turned his glare onto her, she burst out laughing. She never has liked Tyler, and with good reason.

# Clomp-Clomp—Clomp-Clomp—Clomp-Clomp—Clomp-Clomp

** **

"What the?…" Tyler wondered aloud, being the deep thinker that he is.

Tyler turned towards the sound, now looking straight at the front of a carriage pulled by 2 running horses. Tyler froze with a deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes.

The driver tugged on the reins again and again. "Whoa! Whoa!"

I watched the horses straining to stop the moving carriage. It came to a halt. No more than 5 inches from the horse's faces. One horse stretched its neck and lightly touched Tyler's forehead with its nose. With the same look still frozen on his face, he collapsed in a heap.

A man jumped out of the carriage. After speaking to the driver, he faced us. We couldn't understand anything that he said, but he was pointing at Tyler.

"Mallory?" Jamie questioned. "You're French, right?"

"My French vocabulary is very limited, but I'll try," Mallory spoke to the man slowly, racking her brain for words she knew. He looked slightly insulted at this 'obvious butchering' of his language, but stayed nonetheless.

"So, you can't speak French?" the man repeated. "I thought you looked like you were foreigners. Strange fashions you English have." Gesturing again at Tyler, he continued apollegetically, "I'm very sorry for almost running over your friend."

"Don't be," Caelie whispered to me.

The man continued, obviously not hearing Caelie. "My name is Charles DeChangy. It would put my conscious at ease if you would stay at my home, at least until your friend recovers."

We all huddled together to talk it over.

"Friend? I can pretend Tyler's my friend if this guy's offering a place to stay!" she whispered again.

"What if this guy's a mass murderer who's only acting nice?" Kevin whispered with wide eyes.

"Then you'll be the first to go," Jamie smiled, patting him on his shoulder.

"I think we should go," I put in. "Tyler probably needs medical help-"

"Mental help," Caelie helpfully corrected.

"-And Ralon looks like he desperately needs a place to lie down. No offense Ralon, but you look like shit!"

Ralon- who could now stand on his own- smiled weakly, one hand on his head. The look in his eyes sarcastically asked me why on Earth would he feel like that? I could tell he was still mad at Caelie and me, but trying not to be.

"What do you think, Mallory?"

"Well," she smiled a little timidly. "I agree with you, but I think we should take a vote."

The result of the vote was that everyone agreed to go except one. Big guess as to who that was.

"Tyler didn't get to vote!" Kevin fumed. "He'd agree with me!"

"Kevin, Tyler's unconscious, would you like to join him?" That shut him up.

We dragged our reluctant group member to the carriage, where Tyler had already been loaded into. For a moment I wondered if any of the girl's votes had been swayed by those twinkling hazel eyes and apollegetic smile of that man- Charles. But, knowing my friends, I knew they hadn't.

We filed into the carriage and tried to make room for all. Some of us had to sit on other's laps, but finally the carriage began on its way.


	3. Caelie3

My mind was racing….Charles DeChangy? As in somehow related to Raoul DeChangy?!? Well, maybe there was more than one family with the DeChangy title. Or maybe I was sitting in an enclosed space with the relative of someone I thought of as a waste of oxygen, and I wasn't talking about Tyler. Of course, if Raoul looked anything like Charles, I really didn't see how I could keep hating him…

Oh well. Cross that bridge when we get there, right? I straightened in my seat as the carriage tumbled along.

"Anyone got a marker, or some make-up? I think we should be taking advantage of Tyler being unconscious!" The group laughed nervously and looked over at Charles who was staring out of the window, the only open window. The carriage slowed to a stop. Ralon bolted out the door an held it open with a flourish.

"First floor; men's wear, sports equipment, and ax-murderers," he said quietly as we scrambled out. Kevin and Charles dragged Tyler across the well kept grounds, dirt and small plants, to the front door of what could only be described as a mansion.

I laughed the whole way.

*****

The girls had their own room, as did the guys. Becca suggested that Tyler sleep in the barn with the other asses, but that didn't take well with the stableman.

"We don't have any donkeys," Charles said, a bit confused. Ralon whispered in his ear and Charles visibly paled. "Oh, that's what you mean. Very humorous." He walked away a little shaken, not used to 'such strong language' Ralon explained.

"Do you think he's what the South meant by a 'paper-collared dandy'?"Jamie asked. Becca and I smiled at each other. 

"Probably," we said in unison.

"Surround sound!"

Kevin rubbed his temples in a clock-wise motion and sighed. Jamie put her arm around his shoulder. "Just click your heels and say 'there's no place like home'!" Kevin shrugged her off.

Mallory looked around. "Has anyone seen 'Nessa?"

"Actually, I haven't seen her since we got out of the carriage."

"Oh, don't worry. She's a big girl. She can take care of herself, I hope."

*****


End file.
